Artwork of the Day – Zhuang Hui

Liverpool artwork of the day – Thursday June 7 2007. ‘Factory Floor’ by Zhuang Hui at Tate Liverpool until June 10 2007

When I first saw this image for the exhibition of Contemporary Art from China, ‘The Real Thing’ I thought it was just of a photograph and didn’t think much of it. But it is in fact a picture of just part of the artwork which is a faithful reproduction of part of a steel processing plant. The whole thing is made out of polystyrene but looks so realistic.

It tells the story of an incident that occurred at a factory where the artist later worked. The factory floor is deserted as all the workers, who it seems had been having their lunch had rushed off to aid a young worker who had been badly injured as one of the steel plates had fallen onto him.

There’s a lot to see in this exhibition which ends on Sunday June 10th

Another highlight for me is ‘8848 – 1.86’ which documents Xu Zhen’s ascent of Mount Everest. He chopped off the top 1.86 metres (his own height) of the mountain and brought it back down. The tip of the mountain is on display in a big glass case in the gallery – still covered in ice and snow! Amazing.- and it must be true because its all documented, the drawings, photos, videos, even the actual tents the team used 😉

I hope the big ‘chandelier’ – ‘Fountain of Light’ by Ai Weiwei stays floating in the centre of the Albert Dock for a while longer at least.